Afternoon summary
- Kemi Badenoch has been eliminated from the Conservative leadership race, setting up a battle between Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss to join Rishi Sunak in the last round. Some bookmakers are now giving odds making Truss the new favourite in the contest. These are the implied odds of winning from Smarkets, the betting exchange company.
- Labour under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn was riven by bitter infighting, with his supporters and opponents using the issue of antisemitism within the party “as a factional weapon”, a long-awaited report has said. In his response to the report, published in full on his Facebook page, Corbyn says the report should trigger a debate about whether or not the Labour party is there to serve its members. He says:
The appalling behaviour that Forde calls out, including the repulsive racism and sexism shown to Diane Abbott and others, should have no place in a progressive party. Toxic factionalism is far from over - nor are persistent problems of racism and sexism - and action must be taken, as Forde makes clear.
Most of all, the party needs to decide what it is for and who decides that. Are we a democratic socialist party, run by members and affiliated unions, that aims for a fundamental transfer of wealth and power from the few to the many? Or are we something else?
Government releases further details of public sector pay awards
The government has now published various written ministerial statements with details of pay awards.
Priti Patel, the home secretary, has published details of the pay award for police officers. She says:
The review body recommends a consolidated increase of £1,900 to all police officer pay points for all ranks from 1 September 2022, equivalent to 5% overall. It is targeted at those on the lowest pay points to provide an uplift of up to 8.8%, and between 0.6% and 1.8% for those on the highest pay points. The government recognises that increases in the cost of living are having a significant impact on the lower paid. It is within this context and after careful consideration that we have chosen to accept this recommendation in full. As at March 2022 there are 142,526 police officers who will receive this consolidated increase.
Patel has also published details of the pay awards for police and crime commissioners.
Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, has said members of armed forces will get a 3.75% pay rise. The full details are here.
Steve Barclay, the health secretary, has released full details of the award for NHS staff. (See 4.31pm.)
James Cleverly, the education secretary, has released full details of the award for teachers. (See 5.16pm.)
Dominic Raab, the justice secretary, says he has decided judges should get a 3% pay rise, instead of the 3.5% recommended by the senior salaries review body.
And Raab says prison officers will get a pay rise of at least 4%, with more for lower paid staff.
Heather Wheeler, the Cabinet Office minister, says senior civil servants should get an across the board increase of 2%, instead of the 3% recommended by the senior salaries review body. But pay band minimums will increase too.
